Thanks to Uncle Jeff babysitting for us, Ryan and I got to go out on a date last night. Since we’ve only lived here in Tyler for less than two years & don’t eat out all that often because we love to cook, there are still many restaurants on our list of places we want to try. Well, last night we were excited to try one of those places. Because I am a planner (or as some would call it – OCD), I went online, made reservations, emailed Ryan the list of beers, looked over the menu and even had picked out a few dishes and appetizers that sounded good. Do you do this too, or am I really weird?

Unfortunately, it didn’t pan out like we had hoped.

Below are the two interactions we had while at this particular restaurant that made us decide to wait and come back another night. We walked in (to a nearly empty restaurant) and up to the hostess stand and here’s how it went down…

Conversation #1:

Hostess, “Hello. Table for 2?”

Me, “Yes, please.”

Hostess, “Sorry, we don’t have our regular menu tonight, we only have this special Valentine’s menu…I hope that’s OK.”

Me & Ryan, “OK, thanks.”

Hostess, “I don’t know what to recommend because I don’t like food.”

Ryan, “You don’t like food?”

Hostess, “I mean, I like food. I’m just a picky eater. So I probably wouldn’t like any of that.”

Me & Ryan, “Um, OK”

Great sale there hostess. We continue to our table and sit down, only to be greeted by our server:

Me, “Ah oh, sorry to hear that. So, this Valentine’s menu is all that is offered tonight, we can’t order off the regular menu?”

Server, “No, sorry. That’s all we have. I’ll give you a few minutes to look over the menu. What would you like to drink?”

Me & Ryan: “Water for now.”

Server walks away and Ryan and I take a look at this one page Valentine’s Menu that everyone seems so excited about. Everything was marked up. There was only about 1/3 of their regular menu items and nothing that I had picked out online was on there. [side note: see, case & point of why I am a planner!] Sea bass for $35 was not really what we had in mind. We both looked at each other laughing and said, “Let’s go somewhere else!”

We tossed the “trying something new” for the evening and headed to one of our local faves and had a fabulous meal and an even better date. Have I told you lately how much I love my husband and how thankful I am for him? How cute is he? He even wore a tie! When he walked out of our room after getting ready for the night, the girls asked him, “Daddy, what is that on your neck?” HA!